C. Everett Koop, ex-surgeon general, dies in NH - KAIT-Jonesboro, AR-News, weather, sports

C. Everett Koop, ex-surgeon general, dies in NH

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HANOVER, N.H. (AP) - Dr. C. Everett Koop, an evangelical Christian who was surgeon general for seven years during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, has died in New Hampshire. He was 96.

In the 1970s, Koop spoke out against abortion in a series of films he made with Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer.

But as surgeon general, Koop shocked many Christians in 1986 when he endorsed condoms and sex education to stop the spread of AIDS. Koop personally opposed homosexuality and believed sex should be saved for marriage. But he insisted that Americans, especially young people, must not die for lack of explicit information about how the HIV virus was transmitted.

Although raised as a Baptist, Koop developed a deep faith at a Presbyterian church near Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and began praying at the bedside of his young patients. In 1973 he wrote, "I have found there are very few atheists among the parents of dying children."

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